R.I.P. Ed Brinkman

Ed Brinkman was one of the mainstays of the v.2.0 Nats, the 1961 expansion team that replaced the original Senators who became the Minnesota Twins. I grew up on that team: Frank Howard, Mike Epstein, Ken McMullen, Paul Casanova, Bernie Allen, Doug Camilli, Tim Cullen, Joe Coleman, Jim Hannan, Del Unser, Dick Bosman, Casey Cox, Darold Knowles...Our Wondrous Nats, as WaPo sports columnist Shirley Povich called them.

That team would later leave town and become the Texas Rangers, which of course played a role in our current national debacles by being a key steppingstone for George W. Bush on his way to the Texas governorship, and, ultimately, the Presidency. But long before all that, there was still this ballclub that wasn't very good, but was still fun to root for.